A Call to Work
I’ve been working hard on getting some stories ready to publish.
And, as much as I love it, it is hard work.
I’ve been wrestling with point of view (POV) a lot. I’m working on a story that starts from the perspective of a young girl. She doesn’t know all that has happened, and some of the stuff she does know, she doesn’t understand. So, I’ve been trying figure out how to change the POV if I need to, without distracting the reader.
Someone asked me why it matters, what difference it makes who the story comes from. This person is an avid reader, but not a writer.
I launched in to my speech on the work of a writer. I’ll share it with you, but before I do, I must tell you… it’s not something I came up with myself. I picked it up from a combination of sources. You’ll recognise a few of them as I go, but here’s how I put it together.
It is the writer who must do all the work. The reader should have no work to do. It’s my job as the writer to craft a tale that will be seamless to read. At no point do I want my reader to have to work to get what I’m saying. They may not agree with me, they may be uncomfortable with the storyline, but at no point should the actual reading of it, be difficult for them. The work is for me to do. As the writer, I wrestle with the complications of POV so that the reader doesn’t have to.
I have a story whose main character is 8 years old. She needs to talk and act and think like an 8 year old. She will hear things that she does not appreciate the implications of. The adult reader may get it, but the character is too young to. So, even if the reader has worked out what that conversation or incident relates to, the 8 year old will process it another way.
At no stage should you as my reader think, ‘she’s a child, she wouldn’t say that/know that.’
We work for months, sometimes years on a book. Someone buys it and reads it in a week and then sends an email asking when the next one is out. It’s a joyful and challenging experience.
And so, we go back to work. Back to our desks to graft it out again. Wrestling with our storylines. Making our character’s voices authentic and true to who they are.
The harder we work on the writing, the easier the reading is.
It’s the least we can do for our readers; and our characters too. Don’t we LOVE our characters?
So, let’s work hard making them real, doing them justice and in so, giving our readers the best story we can.
Annmarie Miles is from Dublin, Ireland.
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it' She is working on a second collection due for publication in 2018, and a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'
And, as much as I love it, it is hard work.
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| My Writer's Survival Kit |
Someone asked me why it matters, what difference it makes who the story comes from. This person is an avid reader, but not a writer.
I launched in to my speech on the work of a writer. I’ll share it with you, but before I do, I must tell you… it’s not something I came up with myself. I picked it up from a combination of sources. You’ll recognise a few of them as I go, but here’s how I put it together.
It is the writer who must do all the work. The reader should have no work to do. It’s my job as the writer to craft a tale that will be seamless to read. At no point do I want my reader to have to work to get what I’m saying. They may not agree with me, they may be uncomfortable with the storyline, but at no point should the actual reading of it, be difficult for them. The work is for me to do. As the writer, I wrestle with the complications of POV so that the reader doesn’t have to.
I have a story whose main character is 8 years old. She needs to talk and act and think like an 8 year old. She will hear things that she does not appreciate the implications of. The adult reader may get it, but the character is too young to. So, even if the reader has worked out what that conversation or incident relates to, the 8 year old will process it another way.
At no stage should you as my reader think, ‘she’s a child, she wouldn’t say that/know that.’
We work for months, sometimes years on a book. Someone buys it and reads it in a week and then sends an email asking when the next one is out. It’s a joyful and challenging experience.
And so, we go back to work. Back to our desks to graft it out again. Wrestling with our storylines. Making our character’s voices authentic and true to who they are.
The harder we work on the writing, the easier the reading is.
It’s the least we can do for our readers; and our characters too. Don’t we LOVE our characters?
So, let’s work hard making them real, doing them justice and in so, giving our readers the best story we can.
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it' She is working on a second collection due for publication in 2018, and a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'
Completely agree!
ReplyDeleteThanks Aggie :(
DeleteGood blog post! It's such a challenge, making it easy for the reader, so that they don't have to stop and think, 'Er? What?' I guess that's one reason for laying down a piece of writing and coming back to it fresh, weeks later, so that we see it as a reader sees it.
ReplyDeleteYes absolutely Fran. It’s hard to see things with fresh eyes when it’s so familiar
ReplyDelete